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International Free Agents

With the new CBA there are changes to signing International free agents, likely wont have a negative effect on the Angels. The positive effect is that other teams cant spend as much, as showed here the Angels have spent very little in both 2010 and 2011 on international free agents

Under the new CBA teams have a 2.9M cap on signing bonuses. But there is a little wiggle room for about another $300,000

A team's six highest signing bonuses of $50,000 or less will not count toward its total. For 2012-13, players signed for $7,500 or less also won't count (in 2013-14 that number goes up to $10,000). So there's enough wiggle room to spend up to $3.2 million without facing any penalties.

These new rules start on July 2nd when the International Free Agency period begins. That means between now and July 2nd teams can spend as much as they want (like in the past), although most of the top talent from last years free agency class has already signed.

One guy is still out there though, Jorge Soler. He reportedly had a deal in place with the Cubs for 27M, so the Angels would have to offer something around that to bring him in.

On a scouts 20-80 scale this is how he rates now, and for the future. Now/Future

Hit: 30/50
Power: 50/70
Arm: 60/60
Fielding: 50/60
Speed: 50/50

In comparison to Yoenis Cespedes

Hit: 30/40
Power: 60/60
Arm: 50/50
Fielding: 40/50
Speed: 60/50

Cespedes signed for 36M, and is also 6 years older than Soler who according to the scouting reports is very similar now, and has a higher ceiling.

Soler's agent said that if teams want to submit a bid they have to do so by June 7th (Today).

Jim Callis from Baseball America said that if/when Soler signs with a team he will be a top 20 prospect in 2013. Scouts also say that he would have been a top 5 pick in this years draft if eligible, and that he is a better prospect and has a better future than the A's Cespedes.

The likely hood of us signing Soler is slim, we were highly interested in Aroldis Chapman back in 2010 who signed for a little over 30M.

The Angels minor league system is very weak signing Soler would give us a very good prospect.

Morales' contract was 6 years/4.5M with a 3M signing (7.5M) with a possibly 2.5M more in bonuses (10M)

The Angels could structure Soler's contract similar to Chapman's deal.

In the event that we signed him I would probably send him to Advanced Single-A let him spend the rest of 2012 there, next season put him in Double-A/Triple-A. Which would put him on track for the major leagues in 2014 when he is 22.

while i would love for us to sign solar it would become a thing of where do we play him, with bourjos/trout/trumbo in our OF and pooholes at 1st for the conceivable future, and while we don't have a great minor system it's not bad, i like a lot of our infield prospects we really could use pitching though, i think we will end up trading morales this winter for some pitching prospects.

while i would love for us to sign solar it would become a thing of where do we play him, with bourjos/trout/trumbo in our OF and pooholes at 1st for the conceivable future, and while we don't have a great minor system it's not bad, i like a lot of our infield prospects we really could use pitching though, i think we will end up trading morales this winter for some pitching prospects.

morales is a free agent or restricted agent next year i think....

also we dont really need pitching. our starters are set for a while and we got nice talent in minros pitching wise

also we dont really need pitching. our starters are set for a while and we got nice talent in minros pitching wise

We have Morales for next season, 2013, and then he is a free agent.

You can never have enough pitching. Our minor league system is also very weak starting pitching wise. Garrett Richards, Nick Maronde, Ariel Pena, and maybe John Hellweg are the only starting pitchers in our system that have a future in the big leagues, that is not much. Not counting guys coming over from the DSL because it is to early to tell

And while Weaver, Wilson, and Richards (still unproven) are under contract for a while, Haren and Santana only have 1 year left, and Williams only 2 years.

Even if you sign the top international pitching prospect he is going to be around 17-18 years old, and at best he would be ready in 3 years. But in reality it is going to be 4-5+ years and by that time who knows the state of our pitching staff

while i would love for us to sign solar it would become a thing of where do we play him, with bourjos/trout/trumbo in our OF and pooholes at 1st for the conceivable future, and while we don't have a great minor system it's not bad, i like a lot of our infield prospects we really could use pitching though, i think we will end up trading morales this winter for some pitching prospects.

Having depth is a good thing. The Angels could have said, "well we have Morales and Trumbo at first base so there is no need to sign Pujols." Soler has a much higher ceiling than both Bourjos and Trumbo. Soler pushing for playing time is something that is 2-3 years away, that is a long ways away. And you have to look at it like we did when signing Pujols (not comparing Soler to Pujols), we have two average/above average 1B but there is a very very good first basemen out there that we can go get.

Our farm system is very weak, with Trout no longer being a prospect and Richards likely not being one either at the end of the year. The Angels have 1 prospect that is a top 100 guy, Jean Segura. The Angels farm system is in the bottom third of baseball

But other than that I don't know, this is his first time really being a GM.

Those guys that he signed I have to assume aren't the best of talents. Basing it off of the bonuses they received and comparing that to our draft here those guys are equivalent to a later round draft pick (20th round?)

That's at least how I base it. If a guy gets a 1M dollar signing bonus (internationally) then his skill is probably equivalent to a second or third round draft pick here (who get around 400k-600k). On the open market a guy is obviously going to get a bigger bonus because all teams are bidding against each other. So if those guys were drafted here they would get somewhere around 10k-15k (guy that signed for 25k) and 35k (guy that signed for 70k)

How I see it Soler at 25M-30M is equivalent to a 1st overall pick. I don't know if this is how it should be based but that's how I do it

Having depth is a good thing. The Angels could have said, "well we have Morales and Trumbo at first base so there is no need to sign Pujols." Soler has a much higher ceiling than both Bourjos and Trumbo. Soler pushing for playing time is something that is 2-3 years away, that is a long ways away. And you have to look at it like we did when signing Pujols (not comparing Soler to Pujols), we have two average/above average 1B but there is a very very good first basemen out there that we can go get.

Our farm system is very weak, with Trout no longer being a prospect and Richards likely not being one either at the end of the year. The Angels have 1 prospect that is a top 100 guy, Jean Segura. The Angels farm system is in the bottom third of baseball

You know, I disagree, with the season that CJ Cron is having I think he will break the top 100, he already is the #3 ranked 1B prospect after Rizzo and Singleton. Also, I think that Kaleb Cowert will be in the top 100 as well, and at the very least break into the top 10 3b. Like I said, we have some good infield prospects we just really lack pitching both starters and relievers. I guess we will see if Grichuk ever figures it out, he is only twenty. It's kind of unfortunate for him that he is tied to Mike Trouts hip.

I think CJ Cron will break the top 100 and Jean Segura will fall out of it. But who's on the top prospect list hardly matters. Plenty of players on that list will likely burn out before even coming close to the majors, it happens all the time. And lets not forget how many of the top prospects always seem to struggle at the major league level. I'd say the Angels farm system is as much of a joke as Vladd'ys vajayjay (sorry had to).

You can never have enough pitching. Our minor league system is also very weak starting pitching wise. Garrett Richards, Nick Maronde, Ariel Pena, and maybe John Hellweg are the only starting pitchers in our system that have a future in the big leagues, that is not much. Not counting guys coming over from the DSL because it is to early to tell

And while Weaver, Wilson, and Richards (still unproven) are under contract for a while, Haren and Santana only have 1 year left, and Williams only 2 years.

Even if you sign the top international pitching prospect he is going to be around 17-18 years old, and at best he would be ready in 3 years. But in reality it is going to be 4-5+ years and by that time who knows the state of our pitching staff

yeah im not so sure i want santana back btw, I for one am totally sick and tired of his inconsistency, the one year that remains is an option year, if Richards pitches well, we should consider either cutting or trading him at seasons end, hell if he does really well why wait for the end of the season